This Time Around
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1823a. They are not the frightened teenagers they once were, and when they decide they want another baby, they are ready for it. - Paper Heart series - 5TH GLEEKATHON ANNIVERSARY, day 17a of 21.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!_

**_IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF_**_** GLEEKATHON!** - Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!_

**This story is a 'PREQUEL or Sequel' for _Step 81, Fold Away_, a Paper Heart series story originally posted on April 9th 2014.**

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><p><strong>"This Time Around"<br>(Older) Brittany/Santana, Kurt/Jude (OC), Harry (OC)  
>Paper Heart series<strong>

They'd only just unpacked the last of the boxes that day, making them, according to Jude, officially moved in. It still felt a tiny bit unreal. Up until just weeks ago, they were still living in their old apartment, the one they'd all shared since they'd moved out of their respective homes, the first place where they shared a roof, permanently, as their augmented family unit. Now they were the residents of a home bought and paid for, split four ways. Brittany and Santana had the ground floor, and just up the stairs, Kurt and Jude had their floor, which included Harry's room.

He would be turning ten this fall, and they could hardly believe how far they'd come, from unlikely teenage parents, to husbands, to wives, to successful adults, both in their careers and in making this double family of theirs work. It could never be said they lacked for anything. And yet…

"So I've been thinking…" Jude had started to say, just as Kurt had reached over and turned off the lamp on the nightstand.

"Have you?" Kurt asked, in a tone that seemed to also ask 'And you couldn't bring it up before we were about to go to sleep?' Instead, Kurt had turned the light back on, turning on his side. "I think I know what this is about. But whatever we decide, we will have to bring it up to Moms." They had picked up on Harry's way of referring to both Brittany and Santana, just as they had been called the Dads by them. "We can't just start calling adoption agencies or seeking surrogates and not…"

"No, that's not what I was thinking," Jude shook his head.

"Oh?" Kurt sounded so suddenly disappointed that Jude sat up, giving him a reassuring smile.

"I don't mean I don't want us to have this baby anymore, far from that, no, I… I was actually thinking we might need to consider something a bit… closer to home." Kurt sat up.

"What are you saying?"

"We're trying to bring another kid into this house… If we're still considering surrogacy, why not, instead of it being _our_ kid and a stranger's… why not have it be ours, and the Moms'," Jude pointed down to indicate the ground floor below them.

"Oh… Oh!" Kurt frowned. "Wait, you're not suggesting either of us…" he gave a pointed look, and Jude chuckled.

"There are other ways. You've already cashed in your confused hook up with a girl card somewhere about ten years ago. So what do you think?"

"I think before we get too locked in to this, we'd better talk to them."

They had it all worked out. They would sit down and discuss it the next evening, while Harry was off at soccer practice. They realized this was a big thing to ask them, and so they'd made dinner, pulling out all the stops. Santana had seen right through them, asking what they were up to. They would have preferred to wait until they'd started dinner, talking merrily about Harry's tenth birthday party, which Brittany would turn into the event of the decade, going by what she'd already lined up, but they were cornered, so they put their cards on the table. They wanted another baby, and after considering all their options, they wanted to put out the possibility that they might want this, too, and that they might work it out amongst themselves.

"We are not sleeping with either of you," Santana had pointed to them, and Jude had laughed.

"Relax, I said the same thing. There are other ways," Kurt repeated his husband's words. "So what do you think?"

The girls could see it now, the sales pitch this dinner was meant to be. The Dads thought this was going to require convincing. Little did they know, Santana and Brittany had been pondering cribs and onesies and the whole baby question on their end, too. They still hadn't come to a conclusion as to their means, and how it would factor in to their situation. But now, with this idea on the table, maybe they had a way of making it work for everyone.

"We could have a baby that's both of you," Brittany suggested, looking to her wife and Jude. "Then there'd be one of each, right?"

"Actually…" Jude started to say, looking at Santana, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

"It should be you two again," Santana said it, turning to Brittany and Kurt. "Look, we'll love the kid no matter who it came from, but why not give Harry a sibling, a full sibling, with the same mother, and the same father, when we have the chance?"

X

_Two years later_

Held up against the last time, this could not have been any more different. Last time was twelve years ago, when a positive pregnancy test would be met with dread and anxiety. Last time had been an accident, a confluence of events, unexpected. Today found all involved parties anxious, yes, but for opposite reasons. This time they wanted a yes, more than anything. This time it had been anything but a fluke. If they'd been told back when this had all started that it would take so long before they reached this moment, they wouldn't have believed it. They would have thought that things had gone wrong, that there had been failed attempts, desperation…

The fact of the matter was that their attempt had been delayed so organically, without disruption, that they never worried. They knew they were going to do this, sooner or later. They also knew that this was an expensive process, and while they could afford it, they couldn't afford it repeatedly. If this didn't work, it might be they'd have to wait again.

They'd done everything they had to do, with Kurt, and Brittany, and now if things had run their course and they were meant to receive news, good or bad, it would happen shortly. Kurt had been the one to stop at the store to get the test, and he presented it to Brittany and Santana when they came home.

"Subtle," Santana frowned at him, though she was clearly as hopeful as he was.

"What's that?" Harry called, trailing behind them.

"Nothing," Kurt told him.

"Maybe something," Jude pitched in, while Brittany took the box and went into the bathroom.

"Why do you all look weird?" Harry asked as he looked to his fathers and mother, all three of them standing, or fidgeting, or pacing.

"Why don't you go get changed, we leave for your match right after dinner, remember? Go," Jude nudged the boy toward the stairs. Harry scrambled off, though quick changer as he was, he'd soon snuck off to the bathroom door, where he knocked.

"Mom?" The door opened after a moment. His mother was beaming, and before he could ask her why, Brittany had pulled him into her arms. "Mom, hey, no," he laughed. "What's going on?" In response, Brittany leaned over to whisper at his ear. "What?" he blurted out, looking up at her with the kind of wide smile that would have pegged him for a Hummel any day. "Can I tell them? Please?" Brittany nodded, and he dashed off, sliding along on his soccer socks.

"Harry, no running," Kurt shook his head when he saw him coming.

"Just this time? Since I'm going to be a big brother?" he begged, smirking when he saw the dumbstruck look on his other three parents' faces. They looked past him, to the returning Brittany, and when she nodded, they forgot all about Harry's running. Instead they converged on the blonde. It would be months before little Linny was born, but already she had filled their hearts with love for her.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>**always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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